What’s the most valuable knowledge you’ve learned from ER Forum?

[Red Badger]

The myriad ways to prepare a hard boiled egg.

Seriously, I was finding all these FA sites that hawk the need to have 25X, or 80-100% of gross working income, annuities, etc. I stumbled on ER about 5 months before retiring. Here, I found hundreds of voices counseling that expenses where the secret sauce. And these were people living it in retirement, not working stiffs selling it.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I tell you what, I learn something new here atleast weekly if not daily. Lots of good ideas floating. Home repair encouragement, pet insurance (got it!), leads on bonuses, that its ok to K.I.S.S.

 

[Car-Guy]

OMY syndrome can become habit forming. Fortunately I only suffered from it about two years.

 

[Osprey]

I learned a lot on many topics and in particular on setting an asset allocation the concept of distinguishing my risk capacity, how much I can afford to lose v psychological capacity, having spent a long career building the wealth, how much do I mentally need to keep. These concepts along with learning about a SWAN (sleep well at night) portfolio were of great value to me in crossing over to retirement.

 

[CardsFan]

Here are few things I learned here that saved/made me money:

- Roth conversions to the top of the 12% bracket. Never thought of them before

- NFCU CD's. I jumped in later than I should have, never thinking I would qualify for membership.

- the myriad of Medicare discussions that helped me zone in on Plan G

Beyond the above, a bunch of good ideas for smoking meat, and fixing things.

And, most importantly "Funny Joke Thursday". That is how I found this forum. One [-]slow day at work[/-] lunch hour, searching for jokes on the internet.

 

[Rocket Man]

For several years before joining the forum, I was lurking on this site and the Boglehead site educating myself. From the information I was devouring and running numbers through FireCalc, I realized my wife and I were in excellent shape to retire. I am still self-employed part-time by choice, but the pressure is off. This site is a tremendous resource of knowledge! Thanks to all of you!

 

[Scrapr]

There was the poster who saved DW and I, our dogs, and home from blowing up one night.

Thank you!

Wow...story?

I think the best thing has been Firecalc. I mess around almost monthly with scenarios. It always says I have a lot of headroom

 

[Koogie]

That bacon really IS a food group.



And I have enough money to afford all the bacon I want for the rest of my mysteriously shortened life.

 

[candrew]

If not for this ER Forum, it is a certainty that DW & I would not have acquired the knowledge necessary to retire early and to be confident in doing so.

 

[savory]

The biggest thing was being convinced I can manage my own funds.

Also a myriad of other bits of advice from exercise, vacation and brewing beer. I also enjoy being helpful, hoping I am supporting someone’s goal.

I really enjoy this forum.

 

[Scubamax]

Apart from the general FI/RE mind meld of information, (which is a great asset), upon reflection I have really liked some of the product recommendations gleaned from this forum. Those have made a difference in enjoying life just a little bit more every day and almost all of those recommendations were are items I never knew about prior to joining the forum.

 

[OldShooter]

I learn something every day. Top things are learning more about bonds as I have never been a bond guy. @pb4uski's relentless search for the last basis point in CDs, savings accounts, etc. has showed me a landscape I didn't know much about. Maybe most importantly, someone (Thanks, whoever you are) pointed me towards Richard Thaler and Daniel Kahneman. Better understanding of behavioral finance and economics has been a game-changer for me.

 

[scrabbler1]

Because I had retired a year before finding this forum, I can't say I learned anything here which helped me retire.


I am glad to read about people in my general demographic (40s-50s, single, childfree) who are either retired or are trying to get there, and I try to give advice and words of encouragement to them in particular.

 

[RunningBum]

It's hard for me to remember what I learned here and what I already knew. Basically this site helped me with the confidence to retire early, that I'd be fine both financially and emotionally. I either learned or was reinforced to be an indexer, keep a stable AA, do Roth conversions, and so on. It's been a sounding board for some ideas, that I know that there are a lot of smart people who are more or less in my situation who could shoot holes in them or back them.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

1) the existance of 72t withdrawals from IRAs

2) the details of individual health insurance (back in 2006)

3) that so many people were striving for ER

 

[COcheesehead]

Rising equity glide path.

 

[calmloki]

People here that I respect - imoldernyou as a prime example of mental acuity with age and will be missed. Recommendations on this board are given weight; for instance someone mentioned CW Seed as a free streaming channel and we watched several episodes of an old BBC program - The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff and enjoyed it quite a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bleak_Old_Shop_of_Stuff

Learned about "place holder" Cds and opened several for $50 with Navy FCU - a lovely way to keep an OK interest rate until it becomes a good rate.

All manner of good info here.

 

[HtownRose]

You can redeem a portion of an I-Bond - you don't have to redeem the whole thing at once (before it matures - once it matures there's no getting out of having to pay taxes on the whole thing).

This can be done for electronic bonds only, but if you want to redeem a portion of a paper bond, convert it to electronic first then you're good to go.

From a thread started by our beloved imoldernyou: https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/i-bond-partial-withdrawal-98893.html#post2273258

 

[retire202052]

This:

 

[MRG]

Wow...story?

I think the best thing has been Firecalc. I mess around almost monthly with scenarios. It always says I have a lot of headroom

I swear I started a thread but can't find it.

A while back someone posted about a combination smoke, CO, and natural gas detctor.

From whatever odd reason my nose cannot detect the stuff in natural gas to make it smell. Thought it was a good idea because we have a gas parlor stove in one side of the open plan and a gas range in the other.

A few months later it goes off in the middle of the night and I bolt out of bed to find the stove on. Apparently I had bumped the knob on the gas range when I got something to drink a few minutes before. If the detctor didn't go off eventually the pilot light in the parlor stove would have!

Big boom avoided!!!!

Thanks again.

 

[Souschef]

Seriously, the best thing I learned was to come here every day and read the experiences of others.

 

[Markola]

Seriously, the best thing I learned was to come here every day and read the experiences of others.

It is, indeed, habit forming!

 

[JoeWras]

Roth conversion threads

- Roth conversions to the top of the 12% bracket. Never thought of them before

+1

Roth conversions during the ER time and before Social Security.

There is very little talk of this in the standard press.

 

[kcowan]

I was amazed at the overthinking that many participants have on ER and many other decisions.

Who knew that I was such a wild and crazy guy! FIRECalc just another tool. Check!

 

[Perryinva]

Besides pretty much every thing everyone mentioned, the people here have strengthened my belief that we have more than enough to have great retirement. No matter how sure I was, confirmation is always comforting. Also, that way too many people with more than enough have way too much trouble spending it. I will avoid that deadly(?) trap....